Astilbe remained silent, observing Janab's face. There was no movement in his body, only the fixity of his attention. He noticed in her a particular reaction when confronted with her possible end: a micro-gesture in the jaw, a brief dilation of the pupils.
Within his vague memories appeared the figure of a man—perhaps the root of a broken heart—if one attended to the resentment corroding her from within. Astilbe caught the change in her heartbeat, that sudden increase which betrayed a painful memory.
—Your natural reaction to the unknown is unusual —he remarked, his green eyes analyzing her coldly.
His voice carried no volume, yet it filled the space between them. Suddenly his expression changed. His muscles tensed and his pupils widened, darkening the green of his irises. He rose from the chair with a bestial elegance, and Janab did not take her eyes off him. The movement was fluid, without apparent effort, as though gravity held no weight upon his shoulders.
—Is there something in particular you would like to have for dinner tonight? —he asked seriously, looking toward the ceiling as if listening to something she could not perceive.
His eyes drifted away from Janab toward the upper corner of the room, where the shadow was denser. Janab's silence was not enough. She closed her mouth, unable to form a refusal.
—A small cake will be fine, then —he concluded for her.
Astilbe did not wait for confirmation. He walked toward the door with slow steps, the sound of his boots muffled by the carpet. Janab held her breath, blinking softly. Had she thought about a cake in silence… or had she said it aloud? The possibility that her thoughts might be read seemed to her as absurd as it was terrifying. She placed a hand over her chest, verifying that she had not spoken.
Astilbe vanished into the shadow, his presence dissolving like smoke. The atmosphere thickened once more in that room forgotten by the light, leaving Janab alone with the hum of the lamps.
Outside, the night was heavy with the scent of damp earth. The wind, which did not allow the fog to gather, dragged along a soft and constant rain. The vampire's wavy hair, dampened, lost its natural volume. Distrust gleamed in his eyes, and his angular face bore an uncommon seriousness.
—So it was you… —he murmured.
His voice was lost within the sound of the rain. A deadly beauty revealed itself before him. Had she not spoken, anyone might have believed she was an illusion of the wind, for her voice was a siren's song: clear, seductive, and magnetic.
She was a young woman with straight hair, dark red like warm blood, her expression fierce yet carved in marble. A dark lady, an invisible seductress. She emerged from the darkness of a nearby arch without having made a sound while approaching.
—Elek, what are you doing here? —Astilbe asked, and the lady of inhuman skin relaxed. They looked at each other like beings who knew one another well enough either to greet or to part. The distance between them was short, yet both maintained an active guard.
—There are demons among us. You should not walk the streets alone. Be more careful.
That was a second voice, resonating like an echo both outside and inside Astilbe's mind.
It did not come from Elek.
Oceanic, transcendent eyes stared at him. Behind the red-haired beauty, a fairy of divine presence reprimanded him with severity. Her blond hair, tinted with a pure crystalline white, dripped with rainwater, which only intensified her supernatural charm. A mortal angel, an untouchable maiden, a deceiver in appearance whom humans called a saint. Hellery remained motionless, defying the storm.
—Demons are more interested in humans than in us, Hellery —Astilbe replied.
The red-haired Elek released an ironic snort.
—There is no reason for you to be outside the castle. It has only been four days since your last hunt.
—There is nothing strange about it. I am bored.
—I warn you: disturbing mortals may cost you dearly. You cannot choose your prey. I hope you have not forgotten that.
Astilbe hated Elek's tone of warning; it always sounded to him like tyranny in disguise.
—They are all so busy in the castle that I prefer not to be in the way.
Hellery's blue eyes fixed upon him. Her reserved posture shifted; she found an obvious foundation in his words, and her immaculate face—which seemed impossible to disturb—showed a trace of affliction.
—The days are approaching when the shadows will reign in the skies. Perhaps the demons are not interested in other vampires, but these were summoned specifically to eliminate us… us.
Astilbe did not need that explained to him, but it was a warning coming from the false saint, and it carried genuine concern.
—He… has returned. If we are fortunate, he will protect us —he lied, saying something he himself did not believe.
—You can speak of Lucieno without your feet trembling. You have truly improved, Astilbe —Elek smiled, perverse and amused, making him sigh.
The smile barely showed her teeth, enough to remind him of her predatory nature. He acted like someone defeated and walked toward them, inviting them to follow. He needed to lead them away from there; their presences were far too dangerous for the young captive he kept within certain walls. He began to walk toward the path opposite the castle, without looking back to see whether they followed.
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